Damn Fence
by Mirra Mirra
Summary: No, Hitomi surmised, she was not prying. Merely taking advantage of her situation, as any young women in her right mind would do.


Title: Damn Fence

Fandom: Escaflowne

Pairing: Hitomi Kanzaki and Van Slanzar de Fanel

Rating: PG-14 (Minor language, teenage hormones)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Get that? Nothing. I'm legally incapable of owning anything. In truth, my _parents _own _me_.

Note: This is terribly girly, seeing as it is from Hitomi's point of view and I seem to adapt myself to Van's personality with a little more ease. I think my feminine side finally decided to make its self known for this piece.

Hitomi leaned as close to the glass as physically possible, the side of her face tingling with the icy feel of being pressed. The backyard of the house next door was _just_ visible.

Damn that stupid fence.

They had placed it up not to long ago, the family working from lunch until dinner with one of Van's close friends.

The thick slabs of wood glistened mockingly with their new white paint, apparently ecstatic at shielding the Fanel family from her prying eye.

No, Hitomi surmised, she was not prying. Merely taking advantage of her situation, as any young women in her right mind would do.

Behind that newly placed, wretched fencing from hell, worked two of the most beautiful creatures known on Earth: The Fanel family's sons.

Both slung away with garden implements, trying to clear what was supposed to be the family garden of the heavy weeds that had invaded during the past two years.

Long ago the two had given up on using any sort of weed killer because the rather evil looking plants seemed to have been spawned with immunity to any product. Hitomi blessed whatever planet the thorny plants from hell had come from.

Truly, she concluded, it was a sin that she could only see above their necks. Their shirts were slung over the cursed white of the fence, oblivious to the teasing they were guilty of.

Van and Folken Fanel were two of the town's most famous pieces of eye candy. And Hitomi Kanzaki was the one lucky girl to live next door to them, so surely there was _some_ law against that stupid fence!

She felt the need to petition her rights as a teenaged girl only looking at what she had once had. What she could never have now.

The three had lived at the dead end of Gaia Drive since the beginning of Van and Hitomi's kindergarten years, back when they had been friends.

Actually, Hitomi surmised, they had been as close as siblings until the end of sixth grade.

* * *

"Hitomi, come on! Mom's gotta go!"

Van's voice was high pitched as he yelled from the porch, banging on the door. His small fist slamming against the wood for what seemed the hundredth time, and the boy was growing frustrated. Just as he was about to give up and wait in the car, Hitomi burst through her front door, nearly toppling over the boy.

"Sorry!"

She smiled down at him, slightly taller. Van grunted and grabbed her hand, storming off the porch. "It's ok, just come on."

Their ride was Mrs. Fanel's mini van, already with the door open for them and the engine running. The two clambered in, still holding hands as the car door shut and Van's mom backed out of the drive.

"Ready for your first day back, Hitomi?"

Folken glanced at her from the passenger seat, the normal heart breaker smile on his face. Hitomi blushed slightly and nodded, finding the straps of her pink backpack highly interesting.

Van gave a sound of annoyance, and Mrs. Fanel swatted her eldest son's arm. "Oh, Folken, behave. Van, dear, remember what your father talked to you about this morning?"

Hitomi glanced at her neighbor and best friend, seeing how his eyes dropped and head bobbed reluctantly. She gave his hand a small squeeze, to show her support for him and his efforts.

The lady smiled and nodded, flipping her long, dark hair over one shoulder, the strands tinted a slight green just as Van's did. "Good. I want you to try, alright?"

Another nod from Van and the conversation died, just as they reached the junior high school, proudly dubbed Atlantis Jr. High, by the locals in honor of their nationally known swim team.

Folken leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek, then ruffled his brother's hair, laughing as the boy yelped and smacked at the obtrusive appendage.

"I'll be home after practice."

As he stepped out of the car, he leaned over to kiss Hitomi on the forehead, the epitome of brotherly teasing. "Later Hitomi."

All the way to the elementary school, Van faced away from her in a jealous huff. She didn't know exactly why, but was annoyed none the less at his antics, and took to ignoring him completely with her much superior cold shoulder.

"Alright, have fun you two." Mrs. Fanel leaned back, giving both quick kisses on the cheek. "And remember to be good for the teacher, even if you aren't sitting together."

This was mostly told to Van, who had obstinately sat on the floor next to Hitomi after being moved across the room. After a lot of yelling from the teacher, he was finally given his way and a report was sent home at lunch to a very perturbed Mrs. Fanel.

Grinning and nodding, they moved out of the green van, hands still loosely connected as they watched the car travel down the street and out of sight.

* * *

The class was quiet, the students hushed in the need for thought. Hitomi nibbled on the end of her eraser, eyes cast outward toward the window.

If she squinted just right, she could catch a glimpse of the sea. A feather, white a downy fell from a tree near the glass and caught her eye. Her glimpse of hazy ocean blue vanished in an instant.

There was the sound of nervous shifting to her other side, the person in the other row obviously not doing as well as she was. Hitomi glanced over, catching sight of white teeth abusing thin lips as the boy's black tresses fell in an unruly way over his face.

Van had always had problems in school, and she knew he was struggling in their mathematics class. This one test could trash his fight for a passing grade.

Red eyes flashed to hers, and Hitomi gave a secret smile, her hand shifting the finished test towards his general area.

His eyes darted back to his own desk so quickly that she wondered if the action had made him dizzy. The boy's pride and stubbornness would be his down fall.

Leaving the paper where it sat, Hitomi turned her head back to the window. The high school could be seen down the hill, closer to the train station. Their elementary school was closer to home, out of the sight of the high school.

Bellow, Allen Schezar could be seen walking across campus. Most likely, the young playboy had charmed a teacher into letting him leave his last class early.

She disapproved of his antics, but knew there was a good reason. He was constantly bothered by girls and boys alike, always getting attention in some admiring form or another.

In fact, Hitomi noticed, Allen wasn't alone even now.

A shapely figure was following behind, quickly as though she wanted to catch up. Millerna Aston was the only one to own such a thick head of blonde hair, Hitomi surmised.

The two eventually met, stopping to chat quickly. Allen seemed to want to be rid of the bouncy junior.

They parted, but Allen ducked back a few moments later and seemed to be waiting for something.

There was some scuffling from beside her, and Hitomi glanced away to look at Van's desk.

He was glancing at her test like a preteen boy would look at a dirty magazine for the first time, knowing it was wrong but unable to refuse just _one more_ glance.

Smiling, she looked back to the window so as not to let him see he was caught.

Another blonde girl had come to stop next to Allen, this one seeming to be a senior. This was Eries, Millerna's elder sister and the top of Allen's class.

It was no secret the two were dancing around each other. However, she was the overly pampered daughter that received straight A's, and he was an intelligent-if not slightly ruff around the edges-son of an unknown inventor, to a lesser known family name.

They would have problems. With Allen's sister going through therapy for schizophrenia, Millerna's crush on him and Allen's previous girlfriend's death, their relationship would be more then a little vexed.

Marlene had passed away at the beginning of the year, from a heart condition that she had been born with.

The incident had raised uproar within the school and many nasty rumors had come into the light about her relationship with Allen.

Van and Gaddes had been the popular blonde's only really friends during that time. Hitomi had been there, but he had really seemed to have been in need of his guy friends the most.

Seeing that jealous girls had been the main source of the rumors, Hitomi had understood.

The two blondes were still chatting, Eries standing in the demeaning way that only she seemed capable of, and Allen leaning back with an aura of outright flirtation. Soon both walked out of sight towards the school exit.

The two would have problems, but they were both very stubborn.

Hitomi glanced over to Van, seeing that he had finished copying. He quickly glanced at her before flipping over his paper and looking away with an almost inaudible, "Hn."

Stubborn indeed.

* * *

"Damn it!"

Hitomi flopped down on her bed, curling around the closest pillow and hoping it would suffocate her. Was she ugly or a freak? Was she truly that uncared for?

Yukari had been gone all day, off with their junior high's senior track star, Amano Susumu. She had given the upper classman a bag of chocolates, and had been asked out as she did.

Hitomi was glad for her. But did Yukari really have to ditch her _all_ day?

In a fit of rage, Hitomi sat up and yanked the backpack up and onto the bed. Inside sat a package of homemade chocolates, wrapped in light blue fabric and tied with white ribbon.

Maybe she could feed it to the family cat?

After all of the time they had been close, Hitomi couldn't help but wonder if her friend had been keeping secrets the entire time.

"_Yukari, did you know? Amano's leaving at the end of the year. They said he's leaving the country."_

"_I'm so sorry Hitomi. "_

Liar.

"_Hitomi? I really like Amano. I know you like him, and I'm so, so sorry."_

Traitor.

"_If you don't want me to give the chocolates to him, I won't. We could just eat them at lunch."_

Damn.

Yukari wasn't a liar or a traitor. Hitomi was just mad at her own incompetence. How on Earth had she not known her best friend liked Amano? Why hadn't she shut her mouth for once about that stupid boy?

The day had sucked, and nothing could fix it, not even blaming it all on someone else. So Hitomi had done the only thing she could.

She jogged.

The repetitive activity let her think and figure things out, music blaring as she ran the familiar streets of the neighborhood.

The streets weren't crowded. The weather was hot, and her street cloths were making it impossibly worse. She tried to think, tried to plan and prepare.

She had started the habit only around a year ago. Hitomi slowed, then sped up to an almost sprint. She couldn't think about it.

That stupid, repeating reason that had turned her life inside out, and had ripped away her closest friend.

It was the day that Van's mother had died from leukemia.

That was why Van refused to talk to her outside of school, why he didn't come to her birthdays, why her parents had become so over clingy, why she had fallen for Amano to replace Van.

That stupid day caused all of it.

That day was why she ran every day last year to clear her head at age twelve. It was why she ran now, straight home at a dead sprint.

That day is why she went straight to bed instead going out side after dinner to watch the first stars from her place on the fence.

That day is why she didn't notice the small box of chocolates that lay on the fence where she usually sat. Its red rapping and black ribbon untouched until morning, when the Fanel family's youngest son took the box back and contemplated feeding it to the family dog.

That day was the reason that Hitomi didn't know Van cared.

* * *

"You don't have track today, right?"

Hitomi jumped slightly, looking to the young man walking beside her. She hadn't even heard his approach. A moment passed as she calmed from the small surprise, Van seeming slightly off as he fidgeted with a leather strap that disappeared under his shirt and came back around to tie: a necklace?

"What?"

The dark haired boy jerked his thumb at the window as they continued heading to the school's back exit.

"The rain. They canceled track practice because of it, right?"

Hitomi nodded, not really trusting her voice. Since when did Van ever pay attention to the track bulletin?

And why the hell was he walking with her?

The boy was almost electrifying the surrounding air with his moody appearance. His hair was flipped over one eye in an unplanned manor, and his posture straight and tall like royalty.

Obviously, he didn't want to be walking with her, and Hitomi shied away from the thought.

No, he had never been one to do something he didn't like unless there was something very important about dealing with the annoyance.

Wait, why weren't they talking?

It had been silent for quiet a few heartbeats, and Van's fingers had been playing with the leather band all along.

Hitomi had so much to ask him about, outside of their only recent bits of small talk in class.

How was Folken doing in college? How was his father doing on his extended business trip? Was he passing his classes? She couldn't filter out the most appropriate question. They hadn't really _talked_ in so long!

"So, what's up?"

Oh how the mighty had fallen.

Van seemed to shrug, too interested in the exit of the school that loomed ahead. Hitomi wanted to yell in frustration; he wasn't talking to her damn it!

She paused at the door to asses the situation. It was raining, she had forgotten her umbrella at home, she was wearing white, and Van seemed intent on following the path of the Mime.

Damn.

Taking a deep breath, Hitomi counted to a very fast five before stepping out of the sanctuary of the school and into the very grey, very cold and very, very wet outdoors.

Van's footsteps faltered at the door, giving Hitomi a good few feet of space. He seemed reluctant to get wet.

Already the water had started to play havoc with Hitomi's off-white blouse.

She crossed her arms in an attempt of modesty, swearing that she would petition for new school uniforms the next day if she wasn't too busy explaining to her parents why she had been charged for public indecency.

As her thoughts continued down the trail of how to convince the school board that uniforms should _never_ be any shade of white, Van had caught up with her.

She was surprised by his persistence to stay with her, though she wouldn't have been shocked to find that he was simply sticking around to plant a 'Kick Me' sign on her back.

It was just that kind of day.

However, no cruel shoe clad foot attacked, and Hitomi simply chocked that up to chance. There was movement from the side of her that Van was walking beside, and then the world went an odd color.

Green.

Hitomi stopped and quickly removed his jacket from her head, ready to start yelling, when she noticed that the fabric was water proof and that he was now quickly becoming close to half naked due to the rain that drenched his shirt.

She must have had an odd look on her face, because Van seemed to want to clarify his actions.

"You looked cold, and your shirt is getting close transparent."

Hitomi blushed and nodded, slipping the jacket over her arms and zipping up the front. The fabric was still warm from being on him, and Hitomi tried to ignore that it smelled like she remembered his house did.

"Thanks."

Van nodded, then grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a fast walk; ready to be away from the cold and wet.

"I owe you for that stupid test."

Hitomi looked up from the sidewalk, smiling. "No you don't. It was pay back for all the times you helped me out in P.E. in elementary."

He snorted in a very Van-like manner.

"Elementary school was a long time ago."

Hitomi nodded though he could not see it, and looked back at the ground. The train station was not too far off now, and Hitomi wasn't as bothered by the silence as before.

She glanced up slightly to Van's hand, no, _their_ hands. He had slipped down her wrist to hold her fingers, still leading her along.

If it was simply for practicality or something else, she didn't know. But Hitomi let it slide, not willing to break the connection that Van seemed to have completely forgotten about.

Maybe their elementary school days weren't as far off as they thought.

* * *

"You know, this wouldn't have happened if hadn't gotten us lost!"

Hitomi curled in closer to the boy, her body betraying whatever amount of anger had been in her small voice. Van snorted boyishly.

"And we wouldn't have gotten lost if you hadn't demanded we go on a hike. I guess we're even."

They were, but Hitomi still wanted to be angry with him while they huddled under the large rock that kept the rain from drenching them.

Their clothing was already soaked, chilling them as the clouds continued to wage war.

What had been a fun trip in the woods had turned into something entirely different, and as extremely opposite to fun as Hitomi could think of.

Van slipped an arm around her shoulder, "They'll find us, 'Tomi. I promise they will."

She nodded, having nothing else but to agree. There was no way their parents wouldn't find them.

He fiddled with her shoulder length hair, his face scrunched up slightly. A shock of lightning flashed by, and Hitomi all but clung to his side.

Shushing the way his mother did when he was upset, Van continued to play with the tips of her hair. He was trying to think of a story that would calm them down, but all that came to mind were the ghost stories his brother had told the night before.

He would have to try to hurt Folken when they were found.

Then, finally, there was a flash of memory. At the beginning of the year, his mother had been trying to get him to sleep, but he had been too nervous over the first day of fourth grade coming up. So, she had told him a story that had never truly been wiped from his memory.

"Hitomi, my Mom told me this really awesome story. You wanna hear it?"

There was a small nod against his arm where she had curled up, and Van was glad. The silence terrified him.

"Once upon a time, there was a high school girl that traveled to another planet…"

* * *

The trip on the train was a relief, and the semi-full car was warm and quiet. Van was leaning against the pole nearest the door, ready to leave at the next stop.

Hitomi simply watched him from her seat near the doors, using her peripheral vision to appear less obvious.

She couldn't understand why he would act like nothing had ever happened.

"_Don't give me your stupid pity!"_

Their friendship had died a long time ago with only a few small, impersonal words since then.

"_You're just some nosy, disillusioned little girl."_

It was funny, he seemed so much older then she, but they were separated by only a few months.

Van looked her way with an eyebrow raised, looking oddly expressive. She was reminded just why those words had hurt so much.

Finding the people to the left of her, Hitomi all but showed Van her back until the train stopped at their exit.

It was now that Hitomi hated living on the end of a rather long hill. As they continued walking, her shoes slipped a few times.

Van was ahead of her, the worst of the hill behind them, when Hitomi's heel fit a particularly slick spot. She slammed down on one knee, not able to catch her balance.

She yelped, cringing. Hitomi would bet her life that she had just received a rather badly skinned knee.

A hand came a snagged her arm, pulling most of Hitomi's body weight up.

Van slipped his arm around her shoulder, letting her lean into him for a moment. She smiled thankfully; though there wasn't any major damage, the pain was still worthy of a slight limp.

They were walking again, his arm still around her shoulders. The close proximity was uncomfortable because Hitomi knew that he didn't want to be helping her, and she tried to pull away.

She was surprised when his arm flexed, pulling her closer.

"Don't."

She glanced up at him. Don't what? Don't push it? Don't be annoying?

His arm slipped down to her waist and stayed there.

Well that was new.

"You know, Hitomi, I'm sorry if what I said back then hurt you."

_What?_

"I'm not sorry for what I said, but I'm sorry that I hurt you."

Oh, that lit something very angry inside of Hitomi.

"What the hell do you mean by-"

"Let me explain."

They were standing outside her house, Hitomi realized. No cars were in front, no one would see if she slapped him. A hand under her bangs brought Hitomi back to their situation.

"I was trying to talk to you, Hitomi. But all you could do was give me those stupid sad eyes and try to comfort me. I got so angry with you that I'm not sure what happened. I said a lot of things that I didn't mean and…"

Van looked as though he had swallowed his own tongue, and they were silent until:

"Oh, screw it."

Hitomi suddenly found herself in the rain, cold, drenched despite the jacket, and being kissed on the mouth by her next-door neighbor.

Van had lunged forward awkwardly, his arms returning to her waist. Now he was slightly hunched over to make up for their height difference, and very intent on trying to suffocate her with kisses.

It only got worse when she answered back.

"_Don't give me your stupid pity!"_

**I only want you to love me.**

"_You're just some nosy, disillusioned little girl."_

**Why don't you get what I'm trying to say?**

They had stopped for air when Hitomi decided to speak up. "Wh-what brought this on all of a sudden?"

Van laughed from his place on her shoulder as he smiled at some unknown joke.

"I hate that damn fence we just put in."

* * *

Allen laughed quietly, as he sipped some coffee from the mug in his hands. The blonde young woman across from him was gracing the room with a very small smile.

"He sounds utterly hopeless."

Crossing his legs under the table to take up a leisurely pose, the senior rolled his eyes.

"You have no idea. He doesn't notice a thing unless she's gone, and I've had to do everything short of stealing her away to get the brute to notice her."

Eries rolled her own eyes. "Please, now you're just bragging."

Allen snorted in mock indignation.

"I am not bragging! You should have seen what I had to convince his father to do to the fence!"


End file.
